HARDWARE: Tough Streets
by hthrun
Summary: Hardware struggles with new enemies and inner demons.


HARDWARE 24: Tough Streets (by Henry Thrun)1

HARDWARE 25: Tough Streets Part 2 (by Henry Thrun)2

HARDWARE 26: Tough Streets Part 3 (by Henry Thrun)5

HARDWARE 24: Tough Streets (by Henry Thrun) 

I was just exiting another boring movie with Desdemona. "Wasn't that great?" she asked. I was beat with classes starting up again and didn't feel much like talking.  
"Yeah, super."  
"Don't you just love Julia Roberts?"  
"Yeah, I love her to death."  
"Jake, what's wrong? You seem kind of down."  
"I'm just tired." And bored.  
"You had fun though, right."  
"Oh, sure I did" not have any fun whatsoever watching Julia Roberts crying for two hours...  
"Great! I was thinking maybe tomorrow night we could go to this art show..."  
"But the Giants are playing tomorrow!"  
"Pffft, you can tape it. Football's such a waste of time..."  
"Desi, we need to talk..." I said as I stopped walking. Then we heard an alarm go off and saw three robbers running out of a bank, dressed in all black. Finally some action! "Desi, you better go hide!"  
"What? What about you?"  
"I'm going to find a phone and call the police," I said as I pushed her into the nearest restaurant.  
"Hey!" she yelled as I darted into an alley. I morphed and shot straight into the air with my jetpack. I circled back around and spotted the robbers still running. I landed so I could get closer and started running after them.  
"Look!" one of them shouted to the others, pointing back at me. "Plan M! Go!" Two of them split from the third, running across the street. I started following the two but a car pulled up along side them. They quickly jumped in and sped off. I was going to keep following but all of a sudden two other robbers came running in from the street.  
"What the..." so I started chasing those two. But they also split up. Dang it! I'd been tricked!  
I decided to just settle on one and chase him down. I followed him down the sidewalk when he suddenly stopped. "Hold on!" he yelled back at me. He ran up to a dumpster.  
"Down on the ground!" I yelled, thinking he might have something hidden in there for me. Then I realized what he was going for. I had heard a baby crying, but dismissed it first because I thought it was coming from in a house.  
The robber pulled the baby out of the dumpster and ran up to me, cradling it in his arms. "She's still alive!" he screamed as he ran up to me. With my sensors I could tell it was a real baby, but it was really cold and in bad shape. "We have to help it!"  
"Did you do this?" I yelled at the man in a rage as he handed me the baby. I then swatted him with the back of my free hand, slamming him to the ground.  
"Argh!" he yelled. He then looked up at me with nose running from his nose and mouth. "It wasn't us! Here, I'll surrender. Just help the baby!" And he lied down with his stomach on the ground. A police car showed up and some officers got out. "See? You've got me! Now hurry up and get her to a hospital, you tin can!"  
I held the baby in one arm and morphed my other arm back to normal. I then took the baby in that arm and morphed it back to my Hardware arm, safely storing the baby in my drive. "Hold it right there!" one of the cops yelled. "What happened to the baby!"?  
"She'll be fine! I'm taking her to the hospital just a few blocks from here!" and I launched up and flew over.

I morphed back to normal as I ran up to the hospital. I carried the baby in, holding her tight to try to keep her warm. "This baby needs a doctor!" I yelled frantically. No matter how many times I run into hospitals like this, I never get used to it.  
A nurse came right away. "Here, I'll take her. Come with me." I followed and she asked questions on the way. "Are you the father?"  
"No, I just found her in a dumpster." The nurse brought the baby into a room and started taking care of her, dressing and feeding her.  
"We'll check her out."  
"What's going to happen to her?"  
"We'll call child services. Can you give us your information at the front desk?"  
"Sure." I wasn't thinking straight. I hadn't thought about the weird robbery that just occurred, or how the robber gave himself up to help an abandoned baby. I was just worried about the little girl.

As I was answering questions at the front desk, an officer came in and talked to another nurse. She pointed over at me and the officer approached. "Excuse me, sir, my name is Patrick Mulligan. May I have a word with you?"

HARDWARE 25: Tough Streets Part 2 (by Henry Thrun) 

"Where did you get that baby?" Officer Mulligan asked. He was pretty young. I'm guessing he had just started on the force. I knew he was going to relate it to Hardware, so I decided to mention a robot right away.  
"I was just walking along past the hospital here, minding my own business, and out of the blue this crazy robot gave the baby to me. He ordered me to bring it to the hospital or he'd blast me!" Oops, I think I went too far at the end. He didn't look convinced.  
"'He?' So it's a boy robot?" You'd think someone who knew practically everything wouldn't be so stupid.  
"Well, I, uh... you know. I watch a lot of Transformers..."  
"So why did it give the baby to you? Do you know 'him'?"  
"I guess I was just lucky..."  
"At one point I noticed the 'robot' seemed to change his arm into a human arm and made the baby disappear. I suspect we may have an Ironman wannabe..."  
"Good thinking! You should go ask him about it!"  
"Yeah," he said with a suspicious look. "I guess I should. If you find anything else, here's where you can reach me." He handed me his card. "Thank you for your time," he said as he turned around to exit.  
"Excuse me," said a nurse behind me. "You brought in the baby?"  
"Yeah. How's she doing?"  
"Good news. She should be fine. We'll just need to keep an eye on her for a while and then child services will come get her."  
"Cool! Thanks for telling me." I then started back to my dorm. As I walked, I started thinking about the bank robbers. It was almost like they were expecting me. And they had a rather elaborate, well orchestrated escape planned. Maybe Hardware should ask this officer Mulligan some questions...

"Hey, man," Jeremy greeted me as I entered our dorm room. He was playing Golden Eye. "Desdemona called. She didn't sound too happy."  
"Oh crud. Thanks for letting me know." I picked up the phone, lied down in bed, and gave her a call. "Hi, Desi..."  
"Jake! Where have you been!"?  
"I was just walking back from the, err... The police were asking me questions."  
"What's wrong with you? You shoved me into a store and left me there!"  
"I guess I panicked... yeah, that's the ticket!"  
"What?"  
"I said I'm really thickheaded." Jeremy just shook his head.  
"Anyway, be sure to pick me up early for the art show this Sunday."  
"The art show this Sunday? You still want me to take you?"  
"Sunday?" said Jeremy. "What about the Giants game?"  
"You bet I do!" Desdemona replied to me. "There's no way you're getting out of this after what you did today. Besides, I can't believe you'd rather watch a football game with a bunch of smelly guys than hang out with me."  
"Well, now that you mention it..."  
"I'll see Sunday, sweetheart!"  
"Yeah, right..." and we each hung up.  
"Dude!" said Jeremy, looking up from his game. "When are you going to get rid of her?"  
"It's complicated. We have a lot of the same friends; go to the same church..."  
"She's probably telling all her friends how big of a jerk you were."  
"Probably..."  
"Yeah, so there'd be nowhere to go once you did kick her to the curb. Better just wait it out..."  
"Hey, would you mind setting that for two players? I need to blow off some steam."  
"Forget it, man. The only time I stand a chance against you is when you're down like this. But then you get all mad and bust the controllers."  
"Well if the stupid piece of crap game was half ways decent..."  
"Calm down, Jake. Let's just watch some TV." Jeremy turned off the game and flipped channels. There was a news story on the bank robbery. "Is that the one you ditched Desdemona at?"  
"Yeah."  
"There were three others just like it around town."  
"Really?"

The next night I roamed the rooftops as Hardware, scanning police transmissions. After a while there was another bank robbery. I flew over right away, this time planning to remain airborne.  
I arrived to find three robbers, dressed like the previous ones, running from the bank. "There it is!" one of them called out. "Plan M2!" They all split up and ran in different directions. I flew right for one and picked him up right away.  
"You're coming with me, pal!"  
"On the contrary..." he pulled a little device out of his pocket and attached it to me before I could react. It sent a surge through me and I went limp. The robber slipped out of my grasp and fell into a convertible with a large mat that drove right below us. At the same time, I was pulled by a magnetic force.  
"I just fought Magneto!" I thought to myself, but I collided with a huge powered magnet being pulled by a truck. It turned into an alley.  
A large, muscle-bound man came walking out from the shadows. He was 6' 8" and built like a rock. He was dressed completely in black with a mask that covered his face. It had eyes kind of like Spider-Man's, except much smaller and rounder. He also had some red designs on his outfit. Two women came up on either side of him. They wore very similar costumes but each had slightly differently shaped designs. One girl's designs were purple, the others was green. "Nice work," he called out as several others dressed in all black surrounded the truck. "Continue the plan!"  
The magnet started folding down into a compartment. I changed back to human (with my ski mask on), slid off the magnet, and jumped to the ground. Everyone in black who was walking away turned and looked at me. I got in a stance ready to fight, expecting them to charge.  
"Fascinating," said the large man.  
"Shall we apprehend him?" one of the women asked.  
"No, this was not part of our plan," he replied. "Everyone continue the retreat."  
"But sir" the other woman said, "it's just one man. We can take him."  
"Don't question the Strategist," the other woman said. "This was not planned for."  
"My apologies. You are correct." And they all fled and the truck with the magnet started driving away.  
"Hey, wait a minute!" I yelled as I started chasing the closest one. He was outrunning me, so I tried putting in a jump drive. Unfortunately, the magnet had still been on when I turned to human and the data on my drives was corrupted. I stopped running, looking at the worthless drive. "DANG IT! I spent hours loading these things from my computer!" I grabbed the case of drives and smashed them against a wall.  
Suddenly a cop car came around the corner with its lights and sirens going. The cops opened the doors and pointed their guns at me. "Hands up! Take off the mask!" I did as he said. "Well, what do you know?" the officer came walking into the light where I could see him.  
"Mulligan?"  
"I thought I'd be seeing you again..."

HARDWARE 26: Tough Streets Part 3 (by Henry Thrun) 

"So what were you doing at the crime scene?" Mulligan asked me at the police station.  
"I just happened to be walking by," I lied.  
"Wearing a ski mask?"  
"You saw all those guys. They were wearing black uniforms and masks. I had nothing to do with it!"  
"Yet you happened to be at both of the bank robberies that robot was at. What's your connection to him? Is that some kind of suit of armor of yours?"  
"This is all ridiculous! You can't hold me here like this!"  
"And why did you smash all those jump drives right before we arrived? What are you trying to hide?"  
Another officer walked in. "Patrick, do you have a minute?" Mulligan got up and left.  
He returned a little bit later, visibly upset. "You're free to go." I got up and started to leave. "But I'll be watching you." I left wondering what had just happened. I guess they really did realize that they didn't have any hard evidence and just decided to drop it. But we were all after the same thing here, and I needed to help out the police...

When I got home I started working on downloading my Hardware designs to some new jump drives. There was a knock at the door and Jeremy answered. "Oh, hi Desi." I groaned inside.  
"Hi, Jeremy. Jake, why haven't you been answering your cell?"  
"It's late, Desi. Can't we talk tomorrow?"  
"I'm going to grab a snack," Jeremy said as he hastily left the room.  
"You're being extremely rude, Jake! You're my boyfriend and we never talk!"  
"Please, Desi, I'm busy..."  
"You're always wasting time on your stupid computer or studying. I hardly ever get to see my own boyfriend!"  
"Look, Desi, I'm not your..."  
"Would it kill you to open up once in a while? To maybe do something nice for me instead of me always coming up with ideas of what we can do together?"  
"I'm sorry, Desi, but this is going to have to wait..."  
"I've been waiting all day!" she came up and unplugged my computer right before one of my downloads was complete.  
"THAT'S IT! I'm NOT your boyfriend, ok? I'm sorry if you thought this was serious or anything, but I've only continued dating you because I was trying to be nice. You annoy the living daylights out of me with your stupid art shows, romantic movies, walks in the park... I'm sick of it! Now get out of here so I can get some work done!"  
She just stared at me in disbelief. Her eyes started watering, and then she bolted out of the room sobbing. Jeremy entered shortly after. "Geez, Jake, everyone on the floor heard that. It was awesome!"  
"I'm sure it's only going to get worse," I replied as I sat down and restarted my computer.

The Strategist stood in his office watching several monitors he had on a wall. The two women with him at the bank robbery were also there, all three wearing their black uniforms and masks. There was a knock at his door and he looked at one of the monitors which displayed who it was. "Number 267, right on time." He turned to the woman who had green designs on her uniform. "Apprentice, let him in please." She walked over and opened the door.  
In walked a man dressed in all black with a mask just like at the robberies. "Hello, Strategist, Successor, Apprentice," he said as he greeted each of the three who were already there.  
"Please have a seat, 267," the Strategist replied and they both sat down. "What do you have for me?"  
"I found out who that boy was. His name is Jake Nordsworth. He's a student at Empire State."  
"Excellent work, 267," said the Strategist.  
"What shall we do now?" asked the Successor.  
"Nothing," replied the Strategist. "This knowledge should indeed come in handy. But it does not leave this room, understood?"  
"Yes, Strategist," the other three all answered.  
"Once again, 267, excellent work," said the Strategist. "You're on duty soon, are you not? You should get back to the police station."  
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," he replied as he got up.  
"One more thing, 267. Keep Nordsworth from talking to any police who are not part of the Organization. Who knows what he is capable of and if he has gained any information about us already."?  
"As you wish, sir," 267 replied as he left.  
"I don't understand, Strategist," said the Apprentice. "Before you wanted to destroy this Jake guy, now you don't want us to do anything?"  
"Before I thought he was just a machine, Apprentice."

The next night I went out as Hardware hoping to find officer Mulligan. As I was flying around, I noticed a man beating on a woman in an alley. I was already still ticked about everything else that had been going on and nothing irks me more than abuse like that. I charged down to help her.  
"What the..." he said.  
"Big man, aren't you?" I said as I punched him across the face. Blood splattered from his mouth and nose and he hit the ground, lifeless. Oh no, did I just...  
"You killed my husband!" the woman, black and blue from her abuse, started screaming. "You freak!" She hit me as hard as she could. There was a loud clang. "AAAIIIEEE! I broke my hand! You son of a..."  
"You deserved that! You're pathetic, staying with someone who beats you! You made yourself a victim!"  
"#&$ you!" she screamed at me. In a rage, I pulled back my fist to hit her. She recoiled in horror and I noticed even more so the cuts and bruises on her face. Then I looked at her husband lying there. I screamed and thrusted my fist through a wall. I then ran and took off, leaving the woman there crying.

I just sat on a rooftop, afraid to change back to human for fear I wouldn't be able to stop crying. I was just about to do the same thing to that woman that I hit the man for. That I _killed_ him for. I... I took a life. I was trying to protect someone, but I didn't need to use that kind of force...  
"God, what is wrong with me? Why do I lose control like that? Why haven't you helped me? Please, HELP ME!" I had to get help, get some medication or something. But first, I knew what else I had to do...

"Officer Mulligan?" I asked as I was walking up behind him. I was waiting out the police station for him. He just ended his shift and was about to get in his car. He turned around and looked at me, surprised. "I'm here to turn myself in," I said as I morphed back to human and took off my ski mask. "I killed a man."  
"I... I knew it," he stuttered out as I stood in front of him. He regained his composure "Who did you kill, Jake?"  
"Some guy was beating on his wife in an alley on 2nd Street..."  
"That was you?"  
"I'm sorry..."  
"I can't believe you're coming forward like this..."  
"It's... it's the right thing to do."  
"You tried to rescue that woman. You'll probably just get manslaughter, if that."  
"But I have this gift. I have to be held responsible when I..."  
"You could have been some ordinary guy with a crowbar."  
"Yeah, but still... Are you going to arrest me?"  
"I'm afraid I have to," Mulligan replied, "but I think we can keep your identity under wraps. Perhaps you can help us stop these robberies."  
"I have to admit," I said as he led me to the station, "I didn't think you'd be so understanding after our past discussions."  
"I'm much more appreciative with people when they cooperate," he said as he led me into the station.  
Another officer came up to us. "Hey, Patrick, I thought you were going home?"  
"I had to place this young man under arrest, Stevenson. He confessed for accidentally killing the man in the alley over on 2nd street."  
"I heard it was one of those robots."  
"The lady was under a LOT of stress," Patrick said. "She must have been seeing things."  
"I can take care of this for you, Pat," Stevenson said. "You're off the clock. Go home and get some rest."  
"Thanks, Stevenson. Jake, you did the right thing."

Stevenson took me into another room. "Wait here a minute, I'll be right back." After about fifteen minutes he returned. "Ok, son, you're free to go."  
"What?"  
"We got it all cleared up. You saved that poor woman's life. You're a hero! Now go home, it's late."  
"This can't be right..."  
"Aw, kid, we're not as bad as they portray us on TV. You're a stand-up young man!" He held the door opened for me. I was really taken back by this, but I a lot happened that night and I just wanted to get home and relax.

Back at the police station, Stevenson made a call on a cell phone. "Sir, 113 and I have it all taken care of."  
"Marvelous work, 267. Marvelous..."


End file.
